‘Ransom Canyon’: Josh Duhamel & Minka Kelly React to ‘Yellowstone’ Comparisons (Exclusive)

Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly are dishing on their new romantic western series “Ransom Canyon,” which has drawn comparisons to both “Yellowstone” and “Virgin River.”

“Extra” spoke with Josh and Minka, who called it “flattering” to be compared to “Yellowstone.”

Minka noted, “I would say they’re in the same sandbox. I don’t know how actually similar we would be to ‘Yellowstone,’ so I don’t wanna get anyone’s hopes up looking for ‘Yellowstone.’ We’re really our own entire world.”

She added, "I guess it's similar in that it has the same backdrops in the ranches and the cowboys and the family drama of it all."

"There's a lot of family dysfunction, too," Josh chimed in, noting that he thinks their series falls somewhere between "Yellowstone" and "Virgin River."

He said what really drew him to the show was the "really complicated" dynamic between his and Minka's characters, Staten Kirkland and Quinn O'Grady.

"This dude is broken," he said of Staten. "He lost his wife a couple years ago and he lost his son, I think, the day the series actually starts... I think that it's a really frustrating thing for both of them, because he's so, like, unable to deal with not only the grief but the feelings he's, you know — it's just a lot to play. For me as an actor, it was really fun, especially with somebody like her."

This was the first time Josh and Minka worked together, though they had met once before — Minka just doesn’t remember it! 

Josh recalled, “We’re on a plane back from New York. We had a full conversation… I was like, ‘Remember that time we were on the plane?’ She’s like, ‘I don’t remember.’ I was like, ‘Oh, really? I was that memorable?’”

Minka laughed, “Maybe I was too intimidated and I blocked it out because I couldn’t believe Josh Duhamel was talking to me.”

She raved about working with Josh on the show, saying that he “made it so fun and so easy.”

Minka said of Quinn, "One of the things I loved about this character and coming onto the show was just the complexities of a woman coming into her own power and navigating these, you know, relationships and recognizing unhealthy patterns and learning how to step out of them."

She elaborated, "The tale as old as time of a woman thinking she can fix or save a man and having to learn that, you know, he is who he is and you've gotta, you know, not fall in love with someone's potential and sort of take care of yourself."

She continued, “I love the idea of playing a woman, you know, sort of finding her confidence to be able to actually say no to the man that she loves, which is one of the hardest things you can do… The constant will they, won’t they, will she walk away, won’t she, you know, is I think a super relatable story.”

“I’ve been in these relationships,” Minka revealed. “I think every woman I know has been in this dynamic with, like, ‘Which one am I gonna choose? Am I gonna choose the one that my heart wants or am I gonna go with the one that my mind wants?’ I think a lot of times when your head and your heart are in conflict, there’s gonna be some friction and you gotta, you know, figure that out, and that's such a relatable human story."

Josh reflected on what a special time it was for him personally during filming, which began just weeks after he and wife Audra Mari welcomed their son Shepherd. 

He shared, “Shepherd was born like three weeks before we started shooting, so he was brand-new. So I have a lot of fond memories about New Mexico and the house we had… Raising a baby from the early days is, you know, it’s a lot, so it was a really fond moment in time for me.”